The early days of girls high school sports in Western Pennsylvania saw a girls league formed in 1970. But even after Title IX was enacted two years later, it still took a few years before the WPIAL decided to bring the league under its umbrella.
Then it took even longer for the WPIAL to put girls championship games on the same big stage as boys title games.
The girls league that formed 52 years ago was the WPGAL (Western Pennsylvania Girls Athletic League). In its first full school year, the WPGAL sponsored nine girls sports, basketball being the most popular with 41 teams.
But the WPIAL originally said no thanks to sponsoring a girls league, before eventually taking in the WPGAL around 1975. Although basketball was the most visible sport for girls in the WPIAL in the mid 1970s, the WPIAL still gave the sport second-class treatment when it came to championship games. For a good part of the 1970s, the WPIAL played much of its boys basketball tournament in the largest classification at Civic Arena, even the quarterfinals.
But the WPIAL didn’t even play a girls championship game at Civic Arena until 1977, when Franklin Regional defeated Elizabeth Forward, 57-48, in the Class 3A title game. Two boys championship games followed the girls game.
By the early 1980s, the WPIAL started playing all boys and girls basketball championships at either Pitt’s Fitzgerald Field House or Civic Arena. By 1985, there were four classifications for boys and girls basketball and all the WPIAL played all eight title games at Pitt’s Field House. That started a tradition with the boys and girls games being played at a college venue, at either Pitt or Duquesne.
One of the men who helped push girls sports on to more equal footing with boys in the WPIAL was Chuck “Ace” Heberling, who in 1976 became the league’s first full-time executive director. Heberling is partly credited with expanding opportunities for girls sports in the WPIAL. For example, there was no girls soccer in the WPIAL when Heberling took over, while the WPIAL had been crowning boys soccer champions since 1957.
Heberling also was a longtime NFL official who was director of the WPIAL until 1997. He passed away three years ago.
Ruth Ann Burke was another trail blazer for girls high school sports in Western Pennsylvania, as she helped start the WPGAL. Donna Shaver was the first WPGAL president, but Burke was one of the league’s administrators and eventually became president. Burke then served on the WPIAL board of directors for a long time and was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame last month.
To show how far girls sports have come in the WPIAL since the WPGAL started, consider that the WPIAL had 127 girls basketball teams this past season. That’s 86 more than when the WPGAL started.
The WPIAL started girls soccer in 1981, but the PIAA didn’t start girls soccer championships until 1992. WPIAL girls soccer originally had fewer than 10 teams. Next season, the WPIAL will have 98 girls soccer teams in four different classifications.
Nowadays, the WPIAL sponsors 14 girls sports — basketball, competitive spirit, cross country, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, rifle, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The WPIAL sponsors 13 boys sports.
For certain, girls high school sports in Western Pennsylvania have come a long way since they started in the 1970s.
Correction: Ruth Ann Burke helped start the WPGAL. Earlier versions of this story credited another person with the start-up of the league.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: June 23, 2022, 9:00 a.m.
Updated: June 23, 2022, 3:20 p.m.
